The Lost and Found Hostel

The 3-hour bus ride to the "Lost and Found Hostel" in the Panamanian highlands is, once more, quite spectacular. Hannah and I know the route already from our last trip to David, Ina and Till are stunned by the view. 

We jump off at a random corner in the road, the bus driver assures us that the hostel is here. And really, we find a small sign post, pointing to a small uphill trail. With our heavy backpacks, we hike for about 20 minutes. The trail is dotted with motivating little signs like "You have made it about half-way. Not far to go now!" and "Almost there!".

Finally, we are there. The Lost and Found offers a large common area, with a view over half of Panama. (That might be a slight exaggeration, but not much.) And it's raining not even that much right now. On top of that, the dorms (for which we have a reservation) is full, and so we are put into a cosy little 4-bed-room. Not bad at all.

Of course, what this hostel is famous for is it's treasure hunt. It is basically a number of clues, pointing to the location of the "treasure", that is most likely of alcoholic nature. The first clue, together with a hiking map of the surrounding area, is available at the reception, and after a hearty breakfast we set out to find the next one.

The hint "Look out!" isn't too hard to follow, especially since there is a "Lookout Point" clearly marked on the map. To get there, it's a pretty steep hike uphill for about 45 minutes. Our progress is slightly hindered by the fact that the map doesn't have a consistent scale ("Damn it.. look at this distance here, and if you compare it to that over there, we should have already passed the crossing.. Hm.. turn back and look again, or continue?")

Finally, we do find the crossing, and also notice that every single crossing somehow related to the treasure hunt has a great big sign on it. Okay, that makes things definitely easier (and also a little bit less exciting, at least for me.)

The "Continental Lookout" really offers a view all the way to the Pacific Ocean.

In the end, the treasure hunt is just a simple, but really good idea to get people to go out hiking in the woods. It's really worth it, and we enjoy it a lot. In the end, we spend about 6 hours walking in the forest, climbing over rocks and roots, scrambling across a creek, and searching for clues. (And one or two of them are actually quite cleverly worded, and not making the location of the next one overly obvious.)

We find the next hint...

.. and decide that we should be a bit more enthusiastic about it.

The scheme really works. During our quest, we meet a handful of other backpackers with the same goal, and one look at their shoes, outfit and overall conduct instantly reveals that these people would never, ever go hiking under normal circumstances. 

Finally, we return back to the hostel, tired and hungry, but content and with the last hints to the solution of the riddle. In a tremendous effort after dinner (our stomachs full of good food, and this particular warm heavy feeling you get after a long day of hiking), we solve it, and indeed, receive our share of the treasure.

Ina and Till continue directly on the next morning towards Costa Rica, where they want to spend a few days in the Corcovado National Park. Hannah and me decide to take it a bit slower, and to stay for another night. 

I try to focus on blog-writing, but the other guests at the hostel make it rather hard. A bunch of loud-mouthed backpackers from a country that I can only guess (because I really, really don't want to talk with these people) are engaged in increasingly annoying (well, for me, obviously) conversation at the next table, and the volume of their babble is unfortunately high enough that there's no way of escape. It goes something like this:

"You know, I'm a really cool person, because I've been travelling for the last six months! I mean, can you believe how cool I am? I've done already some many coutries..."

(Little note on the side: This is one phrase I keep on hearing, and it really makes my bile come up. You don't "do" countries any more than you "do" other persons.  It just makes the speaker sound like an incredibly insolent ox. No insult to real oxen is intended.)

"Actually, that's sooo interesting, but I'd really prefer to talk just about myself, you know. For example, I'm going to make a really loud and inappropriate joke now to get the table's attention just for myself."

"Haw haw haw! That was so funny! You are such a funny person! But you know what? I've got this really loud lough that I've picked up somewhere, which makes me interesting as well, right?"

"Yeah, totally! I'm actually not from your country, but from Germany, but I'm imitating your irritating manner of speech so that I can be part of the cool group. By the way, can I show you some of my tattoos, which show what an incredibly arty and deep person I am?"

"Tattoos are so cool! And deep persons.. I love people with a deep personality, like myself! I'm going to add some remarks that will totally hide how shallow I am!"

And so on. Hannah has a similar experience ("No no.. I'm just enjoying watching you cutting that onion." Errr.. what?), and we feel the urge to flee. This is definitely not our kind of crowd.

On the next morning, we take the bus to David... good old David, boring and ugly, but honest.